City of Pasadena Public Health Director Dr. Ying-Ying Goh has contacted the California Department of Public Health (CADPH) advocating for local control over the reopening process. Up until now, Pasadena has been required to follow the state’s guidelines and the only local control was the ability to have stricter guidelines than the state. The governor indicated that local health jurisdictions may apply for a “variance” to Stage 2 reopening requirements. If a variance were granted, a local jurisdiction could, for example, reopen restaurants or allow drive-through graduations, provided certain criteria were met.
Pasadena has been informed that the CADPH will not consider the City’s variance request and will only consider such requests from counties. This will leave Pasadena and Long Beach locked into whatever L.A. County decides. Because it has its own health department, Pasadena says it is prepared to develop, promulgate and administer regulations that would allow for reopening according to local health indicators as well as the city’s economic and social needs.
“We are capable and confident of insuring adherence to all state requirements. We believe it is important to provide the latitude to exercise our local authority that the governor has conferred by his executive order. Therefore, we are respectfully requesting revisions to the COVID-19 Variance Attestation Form be made to allow for local control,” states Dr. Goh.
